Throughout history we have seen actions taken, either be individuals, corporations/businesses, and governments that have generated unanticipated, and quite often, undesired results. Depending upon who took those actions, where, and the magnitude of those actions, the unintended consequences can range from trivial to profound.
Sometimes unintended consequences are the result of willful ignorance as there are plenty of examples of others pointing out flaws in plans and warning about likely side effects of the planned actions, yet those warnings are poo-pooed, dismissed out of hand, or ignored as if they never existed.
A recent example of this?
The #FightFor15 movement.
One of the consequences that many warned the proponents of a $15 minimum wage about was the loss of jobs, particularly jobs that could be better and more cheaply handled by machines. States and cities which implemented a $15 minimum wage saw job losses, particularly at some of the chain fast food restaurants. Workers taking orders at the front counter were replaced by ordering kiosks, allowing walk-in customers to place orders without the need for a worker to do so.
As I have mentioned in other posts here and there, our local McDonald’s has done that during a recent remodel. If memory serves, Wendy’s had announced they would be installing ordering kiosks in their franchises. We have a Wendy’s in our town, but I can’t say whether or not it has has such kiosks installed. (I haven’t been in a Wendy’s since the start of the Covid Pandemonium.)
Another reason for machines replacing human workers?
Businesses can’t seem to hire the people they need, even at $15 or $25 an hour.
Where are all of the workers who demanded $15 per hour, who now have access to much higher wages for entry-level, mindless jobs? They’re sitting at home playing video games, smoking the devil’s lettuce, and living off the handout-heavy U.S. government under President Joe Biden. That’s where they are.It isn’t like none of this could be foreseen. Businesses in Europe, particularly fast-food restaurants like McDonald’s, have been using ordering kiosks for a number of years because of labor costs and more particularly some of the labor laws that made hiring human workers less attractive.
--snip--
The answer? Automate. Just look at your local McDonald’s owners or any other fast-food chain businesses. They’re no longer sitting around and begging for slackers to show up and click buttons on a screen.
Robots are now the logical and increasingly affordable solution to the ongoing labor shortage problem.
Sure, it’s more expensive up front than hiring a 16-year-old kid, but robots never take off work, never come in late, and never whine about how hard the job is. And they never need a raise, benefits, unemployment insurance, or any of the other headaches that come along with traditional workers.
Oh, and robots aren’t interested in forming unions, which also happens to be quite attractive to both small and large companies attempting to stay alive in Biden’s inflation-ridden, supply-chain-disaster of an economy.
The #FightFor15 movement really shot itself in the foot years ago when defiant business owners who were merely trying to keep their businesses afloat turned to automation as waves of minimum wage strikes unfolded across the country.
Call it another example of how the Law of Unintended Consequences reigns supreme over all of the ignorant economic nonsense put forth by the Give-Us-More-Money-Or-Else advocates.